Andre Villas-Boas has offered fresh reassurance over the future of Gareth
Bale, insisting that Tottenham Hotspur have “no intention” of selling the
Wales winger next summer.

Andre Villas-Boas offered fresh reassurance last night over the future of Gareth Bale, insisting that Tottenham Hotspur have “no intention” of ­selling the Wales winger next summer.

Bale’s future was placed on the agenda following his goal and starring performance against Liverpool on Wednesday, with Villas-Boas appearing to suggest that he might leave if a sufficient offer was forthcoming. Although Villas-Boas had said that Tottenham wanted to keep Bale for as long as possible, he added that “players like this have propositions and a market”.

Further quotes were posted on the Tottenham website, however, which underlined the strength of the club’s position in relation to Bale.

“Gareth is performing at a tremendously high level at the moment, along with many of his team-mates, making a vital contribution as we seek to narrow the gap on the ­leaders,” Villas-Boas said. “Like all of our key players, Gareth is on a long-term contract as we continue to build for the future and his progression will be of benefit to our team. He is an important part of our future and we have no intention of letting any of our top players go.”

Bale signed a new contract this summer that commits him to Spurs until 2016 but the 23-year-old winger is the subject of interest from most of Europe’s top clubs, including Barcelona. In previous interviews, Bale has suggested that he would have to review his situation at Tottenham if the club were not regularly playing in the Champions League.

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Daniel Levy, the Tottenham chairman, however, has proved ­consistently that he is quite prepared to turn down big offers for those players he has under a long-term contract.

Tottenham have moved up to fifth in the Premier League following their 2-1 win against Liverpool, their ­second victory in what has been a profitable four days – much-needed after their run of three league defeats. “Those results put us back on track to where we want to be,” said Villas-Boas, who also likened Bale’s taking of free-kicks to ­Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo.

“Players learn through what they see,” the Spurs manager said. “With Ronaldo we saw that you can almost hit under the ball and it gains an effect where it drops and changes direction. He [Bale] has the power to do that. He keeps on practising this technique and we are pleased to have it.”